Half a Nation Saw Nuclear War and Nobody Blinked?

Abstract

The most unhealthy psychological response of Americans to the threat of nuclear war may well be inattention. Warfare with nuclear weapons constitutes a grave threat to the health of all of humanity. The nuclear arms situation today includes ongoing nuclear weapons production, targeting of population centers with nuclear weapons, the spread of nuclear-weapons-making capacities to nations not yet armed with nuclear weapons, and dependence on nuclear arms for national security. Polled on the topic of nuclear war, most Americans think its eventual occurrence highly likely and ascribe to it extreme, even total, destructiveness. Yet when adult Americans are surveyed on their emotional or behavioral responses to the prospect of nuclear war, they report (and exhibit) an astounding lack of engagement with regard to the issue. In a 1982 national survey of Americans age 18 and over, which registered the usual opinion regarding the significant likelihood and